i was wondering if i can feed my tetras and danios aphids from my spray-free organic garden? if so, can i feed them when they are the little grey bug things or do i have to wait until they go green and get their wings?

I feed my fish aphids, they love them. I assume they would taste the same no matter what colour or life stage they are at

I also feed aphids to the fish. Also ants, and caterpillars that are mouth-sized, though they will swim around with one that is as big as they are.

i dont feed my fish aphids and have no experiance with feeding them aphids but just wondering are they like brine shrimp ?

like the older they are the less nutritional value they are?

oh and btw i do feed my angle fish moths i saw it chasing one accross the glass once and tried to feed it and they love them!

is this bad for them ? i have had no problems yet

No idea what nutritional value of bugs are, I would have thought they are good live protein, but the variety is good anyway. I think the benefit to the fish getting to eat live food is just as good as what it gets from the deal nutritionally.

I often find earwigs in my tanks :sick: Sometimes half eaten but they're supposedly quite septic creatures so I never put them in there intentionally.

When my tanks were indoors I used to get a lot of moths at night. Would take the lid off, the moth would stun itself on the light and fall in the tank, free food :lol:

My fighters love moths, they snap up the ones that fall into their tanks at night. they cant fit it all in their mouth so they just eat the abdomen and i get the fun task of fishing out mothwings and heads...

I feed my Cichlids young jumping spiders (I never take the large breeding ones), ant eggs, flies eggs and fruit fly maggots which have made their way into my microworm culture. I have always wondered about aphids. I will give them a try. Thanks for the thread.

thanks for all your replies to my original question. we tried aphids and the danios loved them. they were all over the heart of some bok choy we had in the garden so we just put the leaves, aphids and all into the tank. they picked them off and some of the fish ate some of the leaves too, i think. also tried green looper caterpillars of varying sizes that were on our tomatoes. no problems there either, all the little fish had a go at them. i also have a bucket outside with mozzie wrigglers, which i catch and feed to the fish, and there are bloodworms growing in there too. does anyone have any idea how long i need to purge those for before feeding to the fish?

If they have been growing in a bucket under your supervision and the water looks ok to you can just feed straight to them. I haven't heard of anyone purging the worms, I have fed mine straight to the killies. I'm sure I will be corrected if wrong.

Hey if ants farm aphids i don't see why the fish wouldn't like them

I just chuck my larvae straight into the tank...water and all.

Hey if ants farm aphids i don't see why the fish wouldn't like them

+1

Good nutritional value I think.

My fishes just love them.

You just have to care on which plants they are (no toxic ones).

We also eat it.

Fir or oak honeys not comes from the nectar of flowers but from honeydew produced by aphids or cochineals honeybees collect.

My guppies would be lost without them...

I feed my fish aphids, they love them. I assume they would taste the same no matter what colour or life stage they are at

The only aphids I'd potentially steer clear of are the yelow/orange 'oleander' aphids - just because that type are often feeding on toxic plants.